I have been wanting to get up to Big Bear to check out the riding scene at Snow Summit since last year. Last week I received a call from a long time friend of mine in LA wanting to meet up and hit Snow Summit. I jumped at the opportunity and by chance found the last available camp site in all of Big Bear for Friday night. I took off around one and made it up there by four. Set up a quick and simple camp and then headed off to Fawnskin. I remembered a few trail reports of the trails there. After checking for the trails on my smartphone, I found this.



Not exactly in the spirit of Magellan but I downloaded my map and off I went.

First I headed two miles up the fire road to the Hanna Flats camp ground. Not very challenging or exciting but the scenery was never bad.



As I got closer, I saw the burn areas from a fire a few years ago. It looked bad but seems to be recovering



When I got to the campground I found the trail (between camp sites 49 and 51) and headed out. The trail is on sand and DG with lots of flow. Scared myself more than once from lost traction as the surface is hard but very loose.



Most of the Hanna Flat trail is, well, flat. There are lots of little rises and drops in the various gullies but very little net altitude change.



The final part of the trail before you meet up with the Grey's Peak is mostly down hill. BTW, that beats flat any day! Grey's Peak in the distance.



The intersection of the two trails happen on a fire road. I missed that part of the description so I was a little confused. But even Christopher Columbus got his directions wrong the first time! Once I got it all sorted out, I started the climb up the peak. 2 miles of single track with an occasional rock roll included.







Late afternoon made for some spectacular lighting. The lake popped as a background from the top of the peak.



The full monty



The descent was fabulous. I wasn't screaming down as I was on my own but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once I got back to the intersection of the fire road and the trails, I took a leap of faith and headed down the fire road. Turned out to be the right choice. About 1/2 mile later, found the cutoff for the rest of the trail down to the highway. It was a great final section.



Once down to highway 38, it was a quick 1 mile ride back to the car. All told, it was about 11.5 miles and about 1200-1300 feet climbed. A very nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. The chocolate porter and bacon cheeseburger at Sandy's in the city helped too....

For the record, if you don't want or have a adventure pass, there is lots of parking right in town by the park. Easy and very visible so your vehicle is safe.

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Great TR and pictures -- thanks Matt.

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A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

+1

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You never know what tomorrow will bring so go ride your EBike today or walk your pooch
Fear the Yeti
"Go ride your bike today, don't let the old man in.."

Mike

Thanks for the TR.

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"We'll ride it until they pave it."

-Big Clyde

Great write up and nice pics, Matt. I rode this same ride back in June, really enjoyed it.

For those who want to repeat it, or stumble across this thread sometime later, here's my Strava link to the ride. I started from the campground and finished with the fireroad climb.

http://app.strava.com/activities/157279555

Sadist! Not that the climb up the fire road is that tough but I tend to not like finishing on the up-hill.

Also, nice to know that I did more than I thought, based on your numbers. Thanks for the stats!

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The world does not revolve around you but your actions impact us all!